Economist Profiles Evo Morales

Evo Morales is another one of these leftist thugs who demagogue there way to the top and then put their country in an increasing state of fear and intimidation as a means to empower themselves, A Chavez man they are birds of a feather in exploiting their countries divisions and leading them down the dark path of authoritarianism and poverty in the name of equality.
From the Economist:

Abroad, Mr Morales’s government has revelled in the worsening of a number of its most important relationships. It expelled the United States’ ambassador, along with his country’s drug-enforcement agents. The accusations of American plots against the government had abated in anticipation of the new Obama administration, but business has now returned to usual, with President Morales expelling another American diplomat and lambasting the United States for refusing to renew a preferential trade agreement that is linked to Bolivia’s performance on combating its drug barons. Bolivia’s relations with Peru are awful and it has failed to convince Brazil to abandon plans for new hydro resources in the Amazon which will lessen its demand for Bolivia’s gas.

In part this drive to isolate the country is deliberate. Many in the government dream of an economic autarky, powered by gas. Yet Mr Morales has accepted help from Venezuela, Cuba, Russia and Iran to further his “Movement to Socialism” (MAS) party. Venezuelan troops helped quell a rebellion centred on the airport at Santa Cruz in the east in 2007.

Chavez will use his military anywhere to keep his allies in power, thankfully Honduras is not on his border. Its the usual alliance, Chavez provides cheap oil and the like and in turn Morales curries favor with key groups in hos country by sending money on them. Bolivia like many Latin American countries has experienced significant inequalities, its by tapping into grievances, real and imagined that Morales is able to strengthen his hold:

The antagonism between the government in the Andean city of La Paz and its opponents in Santa Cruz is Bolivia’s clearest fault line. The conflict is usually described as pitting indigenous Bolivians in the uplands against descendants of Spain in the lowlands, or poor versus rich, but in fact Santa Cruz is ethnically mixed and average incomes in the two cities are comparable. Instead, the conflict is one of identity. The cruceños see themselves as pioneers who carved prosperity out of a pestilential jungle. Those who live on the altiplano are likely to view Mr Morales, the country’s first indigenous president, with pride and to think that his government offers them a chance to get their share of revenues from the gasfields around Santa Cruz. By contrast, the cruceño elite fear losing their property, businesses and power.

This fear has increased since April, when government troops burst into the Hotel Las Américas in Santa Cruz, killed three men and arrested two others. The government claimed that this raid prevented an assassination attempt on Mr Morales. The hotel, all brown marble and glass with a few sad ferns in the atrium, seems an unlikely base for a terrorist cell, and the supposed terrorists were an unlikely bunch. That three of them were killed in their beds rather than spared for interrogation has aroused suspicion that they were in effect executed.

The killing of three is one of the more bizarre stories out there and involved an Irishman, Hungarian, and one Bolivian. There is significant suspicion that Morales or his allies set these patsies up and then arrested them. Its also suspected the three were executed and not killed in a gun battle as first reported. Of course the big stakes in Bolivia are the natural gas fields that Morales uses to fund the programs that transfer wealth to his supporters. As long as that money continues to flow expect another President for life, as long as the gas keeps pumping that is.